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There's no speed limit (2009)

sivers.org

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Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#131

Post by matwood »

unimpressive wrote: post #49
silverbax88 wrote: post #13

My favorite nugget: " I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician. I tell them I can help, and tell them to show up at my studio at 9am if they're serious. Almost nobody ever does." I've learned this after so many years. Everyone talks about wanting to be successful. No one ever means it. Having someone just show up is a miracle.

As goes the famous Woody Allen quote that a large portion of life is just showing up. If a hacker gave me an offer like that I'd feel incredibly foolish not showing up. But then I guess you can discount that as talk until such a situation were to actually present itself. But yeah, the disconnect between peoples words and their actions is laughably ridiculous.

Actions speak louder than words.

A lot of people say a lot things, but few act. Showing up and doing something puts a person ahead of many.

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#132

Post by tnorthcutt »

sivers wrote: post #114
Timothee wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too. Very interesting for me to read this now. My wife is pushing me to outsource the development of an idea that I've been talking about raising from a demo to a real site, because I'm taking my sweet time (learnin…

Well... there is a "best of both worlds" approach that I'm considering, and might be right for you: Hire someone to do it for you, but on the condition that you can watch over their shoulder and ask questions as they go. That way, you can get it done and get it launched, while at the same time you get to watch an expert, learn enough to maintain and improve this project - and learn how to do it yourself next time. I…

How (practically) did you do the watching? Did you hire someone local, and just go watch them work, and ask questions as they went along? Was it hard to find someone willing to let you do that? Did it cost significantly more than if you'd paid someone to do it without the condition of letting you watch?

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#133

Post by kickstart »

sivers wrote: post #110
kickstart wrote: post #55

Derek, this thread really resonates with me. I've been at a crossroads between 2 distinct paths for several years. Path A is a road I've been on for almost 14 yrs, and I've grown weary of it. W/o going into explanation, things have slowed on that road, and won't move forward w/o considerable effort. But I know exactly what needs to be done, there's little risk, it's very practical, and I will have company in the proc…

ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT, choose Path B. Life is f'ing short! When you're old and looking back on your life, you'll mostly remember the changes, the big events. These big changes are the hooks you hang your memories on. You'll always remember that 2012 is the year you chose Plan B. You'll remember this big change in your life, and all the other new experiences it's going to create. This is part of living a full lif…

I was afraid you'd say that.

Opting for Path B would actually make life a lot easier than you realize. An endless list of very time-consuming tasks disappear if I finally get off Path A, and a huge weight would be lifted from my shoulders.

Of course Path B seems the obvious choice. But previous attempts on that path have several times ground to a halt, admittedly because I get in my own way. I can't help but wonder: why am I not pysched? Shouldn't my desire be enough to push me forward? If I knew I wanted it badly enough, would I even need to have this conversation with you?

Btw, you and I are acquainted - we went to Berklee together. It'll be something if this exchange ends up being the turning point. Thanks again for taking the time!

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#134

Post by [deleted] »

sivers wrote: post #110
kickstart wrote: post #55

Derek, this thread really resonates with me. I've been at a crossroads between 2 distinct paths for several years. Path A is a road I've been on for almost 14 yrs, and I've grown weary of it. W/o going into explanation, things have slowed on that road, and won't move forward w/o considerable effort. But I know exactly what needs to be done, there's little risk, it's very practical, and I will have company in the proc…

ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT, choose Path B. Life is f'ing short! When you're old and looking back on your life, you'll mostly remember the changes, the big events. These big changes are the hooks you hang your memories on. You'll always remember that 2012 is the year you chose Plan B. You'll remember this big change in your life, and all the other new experiences it's going to create. This is part of living a full lif…

[deleted]

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#136

Post by detst »

sivers wrote: post #124
andmcgregor wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great post Derek! What would be your best advice for someone with no technical skills (except html/css) who is going to start to learn how to code? Since our interview in Singapore I've decided to devote myself 100% to learning to code (Rails to start with) during the second half of the year (I applied the 80/20 principal to my documentary re-interviews and travel). When someone asks: "I really want to learn how to c…

The best approaches I've found are: http://www.codeschool.com/ and http://eloquentjavascript.net/ But I do think it's crucial to have some little project that's actually live and launched, that people are using, that you can add things to and constantly improve. It helps you get immediate feedback, and remember why you're doing what you're doing: to make other people's lives better! You don't want to just be learning…

> If you HAVE to figure out how to make your site do some kind of function because you have people complaining to you that it's not, then you'll go figure out how to do it [...]

That's very similar to advice from Patio11 that I just read over on Askolo¹:

> Rate of learning increases by an absolutely stupid amount by launching a product and having users [...]

1. http://askolo.com/patio11

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#137

Post by noname123 »

sivers wrote: post #7

Surprised to see a post of mine here on Hacker News. (First time in a long time. Thanks!) Feel free to ask me absolutely anything here.

Hi Derek, I looked up your post when it first came out in 2009 and along with a bunch of other things, it pushed me to learn how to play guitar. Fast forward to 3+ years later, I'm now trying to move from simply drilling the different scale/modal patterns to really knowing how to improvise and solo. Was wondering what's your take on this? I've always been a very systematic person but I don't think drilling patterns are helping me very much. Let me know what you think.

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#138

Post by sivers »

noname123 wrote: post #137
sivers wrote: post #7

Surprised to see a post of mine here on Hacker News. (First time in a long time. Thanks!) Feel free to ask me absolutely anything here.

Hi Derek, I looked up your post when it first came out in 2009 and along with a bunch of other things, it pushed me to learn how to play guitar. Fast forward to 3+ years later, I'm now trying to move from simply drilling the different scale/modal patterns to really knowing how to improvise and solo. Was wondering what's your take on this? I've always been a very systematic person but I don't think drilling patterns a…

Take the advice of Benny from http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Click around and read some of his stuff there.

Apply his language advice to playing.

One of his main points is to just throw yourself into conversation in a strange country. Even if you only know 3 words and aren't prepared. Be scared. Mess up. Be embarrassed, but keep going.

You can't just stay in the shed. You have to get out and play with others, be scared, mess up, get embarrassed, and keep going.

Re: There's no speed limit (2009)

#139

Post by sivers »

kickstart wrote: post #133
sivers wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT, choose Path B. Life is f'ing short! When you're old and looking back on your life, you'll mostly remember the changes, the big events. These big changes are the hooks you hang your memories on. You'll always remember that 2012 is the year you chose Plan B. You'll remember this big change in your life, and all the other new experiences it's going to create. This is part of living a full lif…

I was afraid you'd say that. Opting for Path B would actually make life a lot easier than you realize. An endless list of very time-consuming tasks disappear if I finally get off Path A, and a huge weight would be lifted from my shoulders. Of course Path B seems the obvious choice. But previous attempts on that path have several times ground to a halt, admittedly because I get in my own way. I can't help but wonder:…

> "Why am I not psyched?"

Because it's f'ing terrifying!

See http://sivers.org/book/WarOfArt

He calls it "resistance". We'll make any excuse not to do the thing that we know is our highest calling.

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